The NFL season is officially underway as the opening kickoff will commence this Thursday and Friday, before all other teams play Sunday and Monday. The Tennessee Titans will begin their season in a tough road environment against the Denver Broncos as they look to recover from a 2024 season they'd like to forget.
The team enters this season with low expectations from the outside after making numerous roster changes and preparing to start a rookie at quarterback. However, the fanbase hopes to see progress from a team that only won three games last season and hasn't competed for an AFC South title and/or playoff appearance since the 2022 season.
Not all is lost in the prediction world, as the Titans have gotten high praise to make some noise by at least one prominent ESPN reporter. Along with Mike Tannenbaum, ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI) made a prediction that will almost certainly make every Titans fan ecstatic about this upcoming season.
FPI simulated the Titans as a Wild Card team this season
Cam Ward's poise has him expected to follow in the footsteps of recent rookie quarterbacks to lead their teams to the playoffs, in Washington's Jayden Daniels (2024) and Houston's C.J. Stroud (2023). ESPN's FPI simulation predicted the Titans to begin the season with a 9-3 record before faltering down the stretch to lose the division with a 9-8 record.
However, losing five straight games to end the regular season didn't cost the Titans an opportunity to make the playoffs as a wild-card team. Furthermore, the five-game losing streak didn't faze them as they were simulated to defeat their divisional rival, the Indianapolis Colts, in the wild-card round by three touchdowns.
Most Titans fans would welcome that result for the season if someone time-traveled from the future to the present to tell them this is how the season will play out. Losing five games in a row with the division seemingly on lock would provide flashbacks to their seven-game losing streak to end their 2022 season after a 7-3 start, but recovering to not only make the playoffs, but defeat the Colts of all teams would make up for it.
Titans fans will soon know if this year's team can progress forward to not only winning more than three games, but also compete for a playoff spot. Having a rookie quarterback with promise gives them a sense of hope that maybe the FPI simulation can come to life in some form.